Beet.TV: YouTube Has Speech-to-Text Functionality.....and it Works by Shannon at 9:42 pm EDT, Aug 3, 2008

YouTube has introduced rich metadata into select videos, which will significantly impact how online video is discovered and consumed.

Announced in June, we have found the technology is very useful. Last week, we got an update on this from Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube.

YouTube applies a technology in which automated spiders "listen" and transcribe the words in the audio track of a video. This transcription, in the form of metadata, is embedded into the video.

This new speech-to-text technology has been applied to campaign videos from John McCain and Barack Obama as well as non-campaign produced clips. The search box is found on YouTube You Choose page. (It's on the lower left area of the page.) Visitors can enter words such as "Iraq, "Global Warming," and "Free Trade." Also, putting your cursor over the timeline, you can see the transcription.